For a number of years, articles of footwear and various items of clothing have been sold with decorative arrays of light sources such as light emitting diodes LEDs) and/or a loudspeaker capable of producing sounds. This has been particularly popular in children's shoes where the LEDs are arranged to complement other design elements of the shoe such as cartoon characters, toy cars and the like.
In a typical design of a children's shoe of the type noted above, a module including a plastic housing is placed in a cavity usually formed in the heel area of the shoe. The module mounts a battery, a switch and, conventionally, an integrated circuit which is connected by wires to LEDs positioned along the outsole, upper or tongue of the shoe. The integrated circuit may also be capable of generating a signal which operates a loudspeaker, typically mounted in the upper or tongue of the shoe in the general area of the LEDs. Systems of this type are shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,525,487; 6,286,975; 6,012,822; 5,969,479; 5,894,201; 5,812,063 and others.
The integrated circuits employed in modules for children's shoes and other applications are activated by one or more switches carried on or otherwise coupled to the module. In some designs, the switch turns on and off in response to the application of an inertial force, pressure or motion. Spring switches such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. RE37,220 and 5,909,088 are a popular choice for children's shoes because they are reliable, noiseless and movable from a neutral or off position to a closed or on position in response to walking, running or other motion of the shoe. Pressure switches such as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,159,768; 5,649,376; 5,855,080 and 5,714,706 are also employed and they operate in response to the application of a weight, e.g. when the shoe makes contact with a surface.
Another type of switch employed in children's shoes and similar applications is a manually activated switch such as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,894,686; 6,278,378 and 5,813,148. Manual switches are used to turn on and off the light source carried by the shoe, to select different modes of operation for the integrated circuit associated with the shoe, e.g. different flashing sequences or other operations, and for other purposes. Some systems, such as disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,813,148, employ both manual and inertial switches to activate light sources and/or sound sources associated with the shoe. In the '148 system, the manual switch turns on and off a light source, and also causes a controller including an integrated circuit to activate a particular mode of operation. One of the modes of operation enables an inertia or pressure sensitive switch, which then operates to activate the light source in a selected flashing sequence.
All of these arrangements involve either the “automatic” activation of the lights sources and/or loudspeaker in the sense that an inertia, pressure, motion or similar switch operates without manual intervention, or, alternatively, manual switches associated with the shoe are operated to activate the light sources and/or loudspeakers. In either case, a switch or switches carried by the shoe cause the light sources or loudspeaker to operate.